This application is related to Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-241534 filed on Aug. 9, 2000, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a manual operation mechanism for an air flow adjustment door disposed in an air conditioning unit of a vehicle air conditioner.
2. Description of Related Art
In a conventional vehicle air conditioner described in JP-Y2-7-40402, a rotation shaft of an air flow adjustment door is connected to an operation member of an air-conditioning operation panel through a cable, so that the air flow adjustment door is operated through the cable by manually operating the operation member of the air-conditioning operation panel. Because a manual operation force of the operation member of the air-conditioning operation panel is transmitted to the air flow adjustment door through the cable, a cable connection operation is need to be performed in a small space after an air conditioning unit is mounted within an instrument panel at a vehicle front side in a passenger compartment.
In addition, because the cable is constructed by inserting a core line portion into an outer pipe, a cable bending angle may be changed in the cable connection operation, and a cable assemble error may be caused. Thereby, the air flow adjustment door is not accurately operated, and an air leakage may be caused. Further, when the cable bending angle is small, a friction between the core line portion and the outer pipe is increased, and a door operation force is increased.
In view of the foregoing problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle air conditioner in which a manual operation force applied to an operation member of an air-conditioning operation panel is directly transmitted to an adjustment door of an air conditioning unit with a simple structure.
According to the present invention, in a vehicle air conditioner, an air conditioning unit for adjusting an air state to be blown into the passenger compartment has an adjustment door for adjusting an air flow and a first rotation shaft for rotating the adjustment door. On the other hand, an air-conditioning operation panel has a manually operated operation member and a second rotation shaft rotated by the operation member. The first rotation shaft and the second rotation shaft are disposed on the same direction in such a manner that an operation force of the operation member transmits from the second rotation shaft to the first rotation shaft. Because the axial direction of the first rotation shaft is the same as that of the second rotation shaft, a rotation displacement of the second rotation shaft can be directly transmitted to the first rotation shaft without using a cable. Accordingly, a complex cable connection operation is unnecessary, and production cost can be reduced. Further, it can prevent an operation error of the adjustment door, due to a cable connection error, and it can prevent a door operation force from being increased due to a friction in the cable.
Preferably, the operation member is a rotatably operated rotation member directly connected to the second rotation shaft. Therefore, the second rotation shaft can be directly rotated by the rotation operation of the operation member. The second rotation shaft includes an input rotation shaft disposed to be rotatable by a rotation operation of the operation member, and an output rotation shaft which rotates by a rotation of the input rotation shaft through a gear wheel. Further, the second rotation shaft is disposed in such a manner that an operation force of the operation member is transmitted from the output rotation shaft to the first rotation shaft. Accordingly, the position of the operation member can be set to be offset from the position of the output rotation shaft, and an arrangement position of the air-conditioning operation panel can be readily set.
Preferably, the first rotation shaft has an axial line positioned on the same as that of the second rotation shaft, and the second rotation shaft is directly connected to the first rotation shaft. Therefore, the second rotation shaft can be directly connected to the first rotation shaft by a simple structure. Alternatively, the axial line of the first rotation shaft can be offset from that of the second rotation shaft. In this case, the arrangement position of the air-conditioning operation panel can be readily set.
Preferably, the air-conditioning operation panel is attached to the air conditioning unit to construct an integrated member, and the integrated member is mounted on the vehicle. Because the air-conditioning operation panel and the air conditioning unit are mounted on the vehicle after being integrated beforehand, assembling steps of the air conditioner on the vehicle can be reduced.